Shreveport native releases third fantasy novel

John Payne lives in Southern California, where, by day, he is an engineer who designs the interiors of commercial jets.

But Payne, a Shreveport native, works by night in an entirely different field—as a writer of science fiction-fantasy novels.

Although we’ve not met in person, I have to say Payne is a delightful creative thinker, an ambitious writer who has just released his third novel, “Shadows of the Feyd: Book One of Art of Zafira” in both digital and paperback formats.

But his plans expand far beyond three novels: He foresees each as the first of a trilogy. Thus, the novels have individual names but also series names.

His first two novels opened the ”Apostles of Sera” and “Blue Sky Chronicles” series-to-be. The current release begins the “Art of Zafira” chronicles.

“Art of Zafira” is set in the near future, when our world teeters on the edges of chaos, with the planet turning “deadly silent.” In the midst of this catastrophe come the “Turned,” beings who are no longer human, and violence and terror drive earth’s survivors into a perpetual state of fear.

Payne’s writing reflects his enjoyment of the notion of opposites colliding. “A possible future could echo the past, a terrifying situation might spawn courage, and a battle-hardened warrior may discover solace,” he said.

His describes his work as a mashup of classic movie monsters, engineers, magic, biblical prophecy and secret societies.

Payne grew up in the Spring Lake neighborhood of Shreveport and graduated from Caddo Magnet High. He says nature around his childhood home—especially pine trees—influenced the feel of nature in his fiction.

He studied mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech--and minored in German. That led to living in Germany and France for a year, which inspired the first of his novels.

Then came a master’s degree in product development—“also handy for book development”—at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.

“Art of Zafira arose as an experiment, plain and simple,” he said. “This was the first time I diverged from third person and explored a story completely via a first-person perspective. This was also the first time I was confident enough to approach writing about the real world...albeit a slightly futuristic one.”

His heroine “encounters some similar challenges that I faced as an engineering student...but with a whole bunch of supernatural crazy thrown in.”

Another example of Payne’s creativity: He’s an artist who does crafts that relate to characters in his stories, such as bows that pertain to the archery aspect of a story. “I made all of the bows in the backyard out of Arkansas Osage orange wood,” he said.

The novel, by Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall, is written with the premise that the notorious outlaws weren’t actually been killed in the Louisiana shootout—and what happened to them. Fascinating idea!

The book I’m reading: “A Gentleman in Moscow”

A few weeks ago a Shreveport friend told me she thought I would enjoy “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles. She not only mentioned the book in conversation but followed up with a text.

“A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles(Photo: Courtesy photo)

Last week an old friend in California enthusiastically told me by phone that she had a book recommendation for me. You guessed it: “A Gentleman in Moscow.”

In decades of reading, I know that if two people I trust recommend a book with such passion that I have to read it right away. I promptly moved it to the top of my to-be-read stack—and just started it.

The story is set in 1922, when a 30-year-old Count is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a government tribunal and sentenced to house arrest in a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin.

He must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors.

I can’t wait to get further into it. And if any of you have read it, let me know what you think: judy@judychristie.com.

Columnist Judy Christie is the author of 17 books, including 10 novels. Her most recent book is “Wreath, In College,” the third in the Wreath Willis series, and she is currently completing her first screenplay. For more info, seewww.judychristie.com.